Albert was easily dispirited: what was the use of struggling to perform in a role which bored him and which, it was quite clear, nobody but the dear good Baron had any desire that he should take up?
It was simpler, and it saved a great deal of trouble, to let things slide.
But Stockmar would not have it.

Incessantly, he harped upon two strings--Albert's sense of duty and his personal pride.

Had the Prince forgotten the noble aims to which his life was to be devoted?
And was he going to allow himself, his wife, his family, his whole existence, to be governed by Baroness Lehzen?
The latter consideration was a potent one.
Albert had never been accustomed to giving way; and now, more than ever before, it would be humiliating to do so.

Not only was he constantly exasperated by the position of the Baroness in the royal household; there was another and a still more serious cause of complaint.

He was, he knew very well, his wife's intellectual superior, and yet he found, to his intense annoyance, that there were parts of her mind over which he exercised no influence.